50 Years Ago
- Zoning board of appeals member, Edward E. Keefe issued a statement today announcing his candidacy for city councilor at large. Keefe, with a background in community and civic affairs, served for two years on the planning board and has worked as a member of the zoning board of appeals for the last four years.
- A group of parents from the Jackson Street School Parent-Teacher Organization ran into a dead-end last night in their attempt to change traffic plans for the school’s new addition. While the school building committee allowed the PTO eight minutes to make a presentation, acting building committee chairman George W. Keefe said he was “sick and tired” of delays in getting the project out to bid. The committee did not discuss the PTO’s suggestions.
25 Years Ago
- Racing officials at the Three-County Fair said today bettors wagered an estimated $1.1 million over four days of racing over the Labor Day weekend. Fair president Frank Basile said today he expected last weekend’s total of all wagers placed, a sum known as the “handle,” will be the highest of three scheduled racing weekends, because of the larger turnout due to the Labor Day holiday.
- Third Wave feminist booksellers is set to shut its doors by the end of September, a victim of both changing times and changing buying habits. “Feminist bookstores are closing all over the country. It’s the end of an era,” said Third Wave owner Deb Coon, who bought the business in 1995 as a sideline to her career teaching clarinet and saxophone.
10 Years Ago
- A state inspection of the Northampton Housing Authority’s properties this summer flagged 430 health and safety violations in apartments and buildings, 127 of which had to be addressed within 24 hours. The review by the state Department of Housing and Community Development’s inspections services unit found that 322 of those issues were related to improper maintenance, while the other 108 items were the responsibility of tenants.
- Northampton native and James Beard Award-winning chef Joanne Weir will be preparing a five-course prix-fixe dinner on Saturday at the University Club & Restaurant at the University of Massachusetts Amherst as one of the events planned to launch her latest book, “Kitchen Gypsy: Recipes and Stories from a Lifelong Romance with Food.” Weir, who is a graduate of Northampton High School, is the author of 17 cookbooks and is an international cooking teacher as well as a television personality.